Indian Land Tenure Foundation Supports Recovery, Management of Tribal Land

The Indian Land Tenure Foundation, Little Canada, has announced new grants to tribal organizations and individuals committed to recovery and effective management of alienated tribal land. "We applaud these organizations and individuals for developing effective solutions to the long-term problems and challenges to Indian ownership and management of Indian lands across this country," said Cris Stainbrook, president of the foundation.

The foundation awarded a total of $1.855 million in its latest grant round. The largest grants were in its Extern Legal Program, including a $653,026 grant to the University of Idaho Law School to create a two-year pilot that involves community education and the placement of 12 interns in native legal service organizations within Idaho, Washington and Oregon (six interns per summer). The goal of the project is to empower tribal members by informing and educating them about estate planning and will writing, to provide the legal services needed to implement decisions, and to help preserve Indian lands.

The foundation also awarded $398,450 to Dakota Plains Legal Services, Mission, S.D., to develop a three-year program to address the critical needs in its service area through a practice-oriented training for staff and externs, to enable them to assist clients in estate planning and probate issues; and community education programs according to the uniqueness of each reservation, to inform landowners of their rights and options available to them in estate planning.

The Alaska Legal Services Corporation received a $79,518 grant to provide a mechanism for preserving traditional and customary use of Native Land Allotments, a smooth transition for inheritance that preserves Native ownership, and a means of protecting Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) Land where ANCSA corporations and Tribal Governments can agree on the need for such protection.

Other foundation grant recipients include:

Education/Lifelong Learning

• Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians Economic Development Corporation, $25,000 to develop adult education curriculum on Indian land tenure. The curriculum will present complex land tenure issues in a clear, usable format to help Native Americans understand how these issues impact sovereignty, economic development and the quality of life in reservation communities.
     
• Medicine Root, Inc., Longmont, Colo., $94,800 to develop Indian land tenure curriculum for Indian students in grades K-12. This curriculum will teach lessons about protecting land assets from further loss, regaining lost lands and increasing knowledge about the land to make the best decisions about use.
     
• Science Museum of Minnesota, $50,000 for the installation and curating of a 500-square-foot exhibit featuring a collection of Native artifacts from the 1804 Journey of Discovery of explorers Lewis and Clark. A companion "tool box" of lesson sets, classroom materials and learning activities is also being developed for students and schools unable to visit the museum's exhibit.
     
• Sicangu Way of Life, Rapid City, S.D., $19,113 to develop culturally appropriate curriculum and educational materials that teach children about their relationship to their traditional lands, plants, animals and the stars. The curriculum and teaching materials will be designed as resources for teachers and staff at Head Start centers throughout Indian Country.
      
• Dr. Edward Valandra of Metro State University, St. Paul, $13,640 to develop college-level curriculum addressing Indian land tenure issues. The curriculum is designed to make Indian students more aware of their unique ties to the land, teach the historical foundations of Indian sovereignty, and transmit information and skills necessary to keep land in Indian ownership and control.

Strategic Land Planning

• Indian Land Working Group, Albuquerque, N.M., $92,000 for the development of strategic land planning curriculum for use in localized workshops targeting individual landowners. The workshop will provide a historical treatment of Indian homeland and land ownership patterns; lessons to help landowners learn more effective management and ownership; and the development of a personalized land consolidation plan for each participant.
      
• Medicine Root, Inc., $39,100 for the development of two strategic land planning workshops geared specifically to tribal leaders, tribal land planners and other specialists. The workshops will inform these groups about regaining lost lands, protecting their land assets from further loss, and making the best use possible of their land assets.
     
• Turtle Mountain (N.D.) Community College, $57,800 to develop a model Strategic Planning Curriculum for tribally controlled colleges to enable the future leaders and community members of Indian communities to research, plan, develop, implement and evaluate their own community- and culture-based land tenure and use decisions.

Unique Land Restoration Projects

• Confederated Tribes of the Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians of Oregon, $185,030 to enable the Tribes to retain professional educational, media, cultural, forestry, fisheries and wildlife consultants and staff. The Tribes have developed a forest restoration plan and a reservation plan to show their commitment to the intelligent and sustainable management of land that they may receive in the future, but remain diligent in engaging stakeholders who express concern or opposition to the proposed transfer.
     
• Klamath (Ore.) Tribes, $115,000 to develop a Forest Management Plan for 692,000 acres of ancestral territory within the Klamath's original reservation boundaries for which they are currently negotiating with the federal government. Working with Interior Secretary Norton and other federal, state and local representatives, the Tribes seek to craft a mutually beneficial and long-term plan to re-acquire and manage land in the Klamath Basin.
     
• Snoqualmie Tribe of Washington, $27,750 to acquire a 275-acre county park in King County, which includes land that is culturally significant to the Tribe. The grant will also be used to implement extensive community education and outreach to inform tribal members and the surrounding community of the acquisition and the Tribe's desire to be a good community neighbor.

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